Exposing printing plates using light emitting diodes

ABSTRACT

An apparatus comprises: (a) a rotatable drum configured to have a UV-curable printing plate with an ablatable layer thereon, placed thereon; (b) at least one laser beam to image the plate on the drum by ablating some of the ablatable layer according to image data to form an imaged plate; (c) an unloading area onto which a plate is movable when unloaded; and (d) a plurality of UV LEDs configured to apply UV radiation to the back of the UV-curable plate or to both the front and back of the UV-curable plate during or after the unloading of the imaged plate.

RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 13/770,974 filed Feb. 19, 2013, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,315,009. U.S.application Ser. No. 13/770,974 is a divisional of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/113,001 filed Apr. 30, 2008, now U.S. Pat. No.8,389,203. U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 13/770,974 and 12/113,001,as well as the present invention claim benefit of priority of U.S.Provisional Patent Application Nos. 60/945,439, 60/945,189, and60/916,738 filed Jun. 21, 2007, Jun. 20, 2007, and May 8, 2007,respectively. The contents of each of U.S. patent application Ser. Nos.13/770974 and 12/113,001 and U.S. Provisional Patent Applications Nos.60/945,439, 60/945,189, and 60/916,738 are incorporated herein byreference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to printing, and in particularto curing printing plates having photo-curable material thereon using asolid state source of radiation.

BACKGROUND

Preparing printing plates such as photopolymer flexographic plates andletterpress printing plates coated with photopolymer material (suchplates in general referred to as “polymer plates”) is being more andmore automated. A typical process of preparing such printing platesincludes starting with a plate that has an ablatable material thereon,imaging in a digital imager to ablate the ablatable material accordingto imaging data, and a curing process of the exposed plate that involvesexposure to light energy, e.g., ultraviolet (UV) light energy.Automation often includes inline exposure to cure the plate inline afterimaging.

Polymer plates as described herein include plates for flexography madeof a material such as photopolymer material that can be cured byexposure to UV, and also letterpress plates (e.g., lithographic plates)that have a photopolymer material coated thereon that is exposed by UVmaterial to cure the coating. Polymer plates as used herein also includecylinders with photo-curable coatings thereon, sometimes called polymersleeves or photopolymer sleeves. Note that the term “polymer” is notmeant to limit the composition of the photo-curable material. Anyphoto-curable material that is curable by UV radiation is included.

Many polymer plates are optimized for a 365 nm curing wavelength.Depending on the speed by which the polymer plate is imaged, there hasto be sufficient UV power available to do sufficient UV curing of thepolymer during the inline exposure. For 4 m²/h productivity, the UVpower at 365 nm has to be around 150 Watts. State of the art systemsthat include such so called inline exposure typically use gas filled arclamps to generate sufficiently high levels of UV energy in the requiredwavelength or wavelengths. Such arc lamps consume up to severalKilowatts of electrical power to provide the required amount of exposureenergy. Furthermore, as much as 98% of this energy is converted intoheat or other unwanted wavelengths, and needs to be filtered out andcooled away from the polymer plate. The conversion efficiency of sucharc-lamp-based inline exposure systems is usually not better than 1.5%to 2%. Furthermore, such arc lamps run at high voltages, e.g., severalhundred to several thousand Volts. Furthermore, such arc lamps typicallyneed to be cooled, e.g., water cooled in order to remove the enormousamounts of waste heat and radiation not needed for the curing process.

The combination of the need for a relatively high voltage and for wateror other types of cooling is potentially hazardous.

In addition to the hazards and the waste, heating of polymer plates hasa negative impact on the homogeneity of halftone screen dots, e.g., hasnegative impact on the appearance of a homogeneous screened area. Thiscan further increase the amount of UV energy necessary for curing.

Furthermore, some of the wavelengths produce by such arc lamps, e.g.,radiation in the UV-C range can produce artifacts such as relativelybrittle screen dots that can break off the plate after as few as a fewhundred or perhaps a few thousand impressions. Therefore, there is aneed to filter out undesired wavelengths other than the 365 nm range ofwavelengths needed to cure a plate.

Such filtering of unwanted wavelengths further reduces the curingefficiency of the 365 nm range wavelength, so that the amount of 365 nmenergy necessary for curing is raised.

Arc lamps also are known to produce a light source that is relativelynot very diffuse. This causes very thin and small support shoulders ofscreen dots on a printing plate. Often complex reflector geometries areused in an attempt to compensate for the non-diffuse nature of the lightfrom an arc lamp.

Furthermore, arc lamps are known to have a relatively limited life time.A life of between 500 and 2000 hours is typical.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A shows in a simple cross-sectional view one embodiment of anLED-based exposure system that includes features of the presentinvention.

FIG. 1B shows a simplified perspective view of elements of oneembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of the invention in which an LED holderthat holds one or more arrays of LEDs is arranged as a segment of a ringrather than as the mounting ring of the embodiment of FIGS. 1A and 1B.

FIG. 3 shows a different embodiment of the invention in which the LEDsare arranged in a segment that is moveable towards and away from theaxis of rotation of the drum.

FIG. 4 is to show how a light source with relatively low diffusionresults in a screen dot with a narrow support structure.

FIG. 5 is to show how a light source with relatively high diffusionresults in a screen dot with a relatively wide support structure.

FIG. 6 shows one embodiment of the invention in which a plurality of LEDarrays are arranged at different angles.

FIG. 7A shows an embodiment of the invention in which a mounting ring isdivided into segments that hold the LED arrays with each segmenttiltable with respect to the drum's axis of rotation.

FIG. 7B shows an embodiment of a segment of a mounting ring that istiltable with respect to the drum's axis of rotation and has LED arraysmounted on it.

FIG. 8 shows one embodiment of the invention in which the LED arrays arearranged in a line at the location where a polymer plate travels alongduring unloading from the drum such that the back of the plate can beexposed.

FIG. 9 shows another embodiment of the invention in which LED arrays ofdifferent wavelengths are used.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the present invention include an apparatus configured toexpose a plate that has a photocurable material thereon, the exposingusing light emitting diodes (LEDs) to cure of the photocurable materialthereon. Embodiments further include a method of exposing a plate thathas a photocurable material thereon, such as a polymer flexographicplate, a polymer-coated letterpress plate, or a polymer cylinder with UVradiation using LEDs rather than arc lamps.

Throughout the specification and claims, it is to be understood that byexposing a plate is meant exposing a plate that has a photocurablematerial thereon to cure the material thereon using UV radiation. Platesas described herein are plates that have a photocurable materialthereon, and include polymer plates. Such a polymer plate may be a platefor flexography made of a photopolymer material that can be cured byexposure to UV. Such a polymer plate may alternately be a letterpressplate that has a photopolymer material coated thereon and that isexposed by UV material to cure the coating. Such a polymer plate mayalternately be a plate on a cylinder. A plate on a cylinder may be acylinder made of carbon fiber or glass fiber which is coated with alayer of photopolymer that is curable by UV radiation. Such cylinderswith a plate thereon are sometimes referred to as polymer sleeves andphotopolymer sleeves.

Thus the present invention covers the exposing of any plate of any shapethat has photocurable material thereon, e.g., a photopolymer. Thepresent invention is thus applicable to all printing plates on whichcuring by exposure to UV radiation is applicable.

The term printing plate is understood to mean such a plate herein.

Overview

Embodiments of the present invention include methods and apparatusesthat include exposing a plate to UV radiation using UV emitting LEDs.

Particular embodiments include a method comprising: placing a printingplate on an imaging device; imaging the plate according to imaging data;and applying UV radiation using a plurality of UV emitting LEDs duringthe process of imaging of the printing plate. In one embodiment, theplate initially has ablatable material, and wherein the imaging includesablating ablatable material on the plate according to the imaging datato form an ablated plate, and wherein the applying of the UV radiationincludes exposing the ablated plate to UV radiation to cure the plate.In one embodiment, the imaging device is an external drum imager thatincludes a drum that rotates during imaging.

Particular embodiments include a method comprising: placing a printingplate on an imaging device; imaging the plate according to imaging data;removing the imaged plate; and applying UV radiation to the back of theprinting plate using a plurality of UV emitting LEDs during or after theremoving of the imaged printing plate.

Particular embodiments include a method comprising: placing a printingplate on an imaging device; imaging the plate according to imaging data;removing the imaged plate; and applying UV radiation to the back orfront of the printing plate or to both the front and the back of theprinting plate using a plurality of UV emitting LEDs during or after theplacing of the plate or the removing of the imaged printing plate.

Particular embodiments include an apparatus comprising: a rotatableimaging drum arranged to have a plate or a sleeve with a plate thereon,the drum operative to rotate during an imaging process; a source of oneor more laser beams coupled to a source of image data and operable toimage a plate on the drum, including moving in the direction of the axisof rotation of the drum during the imaging process; and a plurality ofUV emitting LEDs operative to expose at least an imaged portion of theplate during the imaging process to cure the at least imaged portion ofthe plate.

In one embodiment, the plate initially has ablatable material, andwherein the imaging ablates ablatable material on the plate according tothe imaging data to form an ablated plate. In one embodiment, theplurality of LEDs is in the form of a plurality of arrays of LEDs.

Particular embodiments may provide all, some, or none of these aspects,features, or advantages. Particular embodiments may provide one or moreother aspects, features, or advantages, one or more of which may bereadily apparent to a person skilled in the art from the figures,descriptions, and claims herein.

Using UV LEDs

LEDs that produce energy in the wavelength range suitable for exposingpolymer plates are already available, and are used, e.g., for curinginks, such as inkjet inks. However, the amount of energy required for UVcuring of a plate is relatively high. The inventor has recognized thatLEDs that can produce light in the useful UV wavelength range havereached a stage of development where they are not only rugged andreliable, but also deliver sufficient output powers, that is, if enoughof them are used, sufficient energy is available for the curing ofplates.

LED arrays which provide about 0.25 Watts of UV @ 365 nm are alreadyavailable. For example, Opto Technology, Inc. of Wheeling, Ill., forexample, has an array of LEDs packaged in a TO-66 package called“Shark”™ that can be mounted on a heatsink, and that produces UV at the375 nm range. The company is planning a 365 nm version that is in thewavelength range for curing printing plates. For 150 Watts of UV energy,a device with an array of 600 LEDs is usable for inline UV exposure ofplates at an approximate rate of 4 m²/h.

The conversion efficiency for such LEDs is around 4-5% which is twice asgood as arc lamps.

Waste energy is converted into heat. One version of the arrays is on apackage mountable on a heatsink. In one embodiment, the excess heat isremoved by using water cooled heatsinks with the LEDs. This reduces theheat to which the polymer plates are exposed. Insulation materialfurther can be sued to mask heat radiated from the heatsinks towards theplates.

Thus the inventor recognizes that LEDs need less energy not only becauseof their better electro/optical conversion efficiency but also due tobetter process efficiency.

Also LEDs are known to last longer than typical arc lamps. Givensufficient cooling, LEDs should be able to operate for more than 10,000hours, which is 5 to 20 times more than typical arc lamps used forinline exposure.

Furthermore, LEDs are powered by relatively low voltage DC powercompared to arc lamps.

Thus, the inventor recognizes that it is possible to use multiple UVLEDs, e.g., multiple UV LED arrays for plate curing.

FIG. 1A shows in a simple cross-sectional view one embodiment of anLED-based exposure system that works with an external drum digitalimager that includes a rotating drum 101 around which a plate 103 suchas a flexographic plate that has an ablatable mask thereon is placed tobe imaged by one or more lasers modulated according to imaging data.

Define the axial direction as the direction of the axis of rotation ofthe drum. One embodiment of the digital imager includes the source oflaser light 113 modulated by the imaging data moving in the axialdirection during rotation of the drum so that the imaging dataeventually images the whole drum by ablating the mask material.

One embodiment includes a plurality of LED arrays 105 mounted on theinside surface of a mounting ring 107 made of heatsink material that isplaced around the circumference of the drum 101 so that the LED arrays105 expose the surface of the drum 101 or a plate 103 thereon whenturned on. The mounting of the LED arrays 105 includes thermallycoupling the LED arrays 105 to the heatsink material. One embodimentuses common TO-66 packaged LEDs.

Note that, for the purpose of describing embodiments of the invention,like elements that are used in different drawings or configurations havethe same reference numeral. For example, LED arrays in any exampleembodiment of the invention use reference numeral 105. Those in the artwill understand, however, that these arrays may not be identical orsubstitutable from embodiment to embodiment.

The mounting ring 107 is movable in the axial direction and is arrangedto follow the modulated laser beam or beams 113, so that as the drumrotates and the plate 103 thereon is imaged, the plate 103 afterimaging, i.e., with the mask thereon ablated according to the imagingdata is exposed to UV radiation from the LED array(s) 105. The mountingring 107 thus moves in the axial direction relative to the surface ofthe drum at the same rate and behind the modulated laser beam(s) 113.

In FIG. 1A, the mounting ring 107 included cooling channels—waterchannels—to which is coupled a supply of cooling liquid 109, e.g.,water.

In one embodiment, as an additional measure, the inside surface of themounting ring 107 other than where the LED arrays 105 emit their energyis insulated so that heat is not radiated in the direction of the drum101.

FIG. 1B shows the arrangement in a simplified perspective view. Thedirection of motion of the laser beam(s) 113 and mounting ring 107 isshown as direction 111, and is shown left to right relative to therotating drum 101.

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment in which an LED holder 207 that holdsone or more arrays of LEDs 105 is arranged as a segment of a ring ratherthan as the mounting ring 107 of the embodiment of FIGS. 1A and 1B. Inone embodiment, the LED holder 207 covers about 90 degrees, so it is inthe form of a quarter-ring.

One such embodiment includes a mechanism that allows the distance fromthe axis of rotation to the ring holder 207 to be varied. This allowsthe exposing unit to be used with drums of a plurality of diameters,with the distance changed to accommodate any particular diameter.

This embodiment is for drums, or sleeves that have relatively smalldiameters. The arrangement of FIG. 1 might not be suitable such cases,because there might not be sufficient surface to place a sufficientnumber of LEDs around the circumference.

One such embodiment is suitable for use with a range of drum or sleevediameters.

FIG. 3 shows a simple perspective view of another embodiment that, likethe embodiment of FIG. 2, is suitable for small diameter drums orsleeves, and also that provides for having different drums or sleeves ofdifferent sizes. In FIG. 3, the LED holder does not move in the axialdirection, e.g., does not follow the laser beam in the axial direction,but is fixed in such a direction. The holder for the LED array(s) 105extends the whole length of the drum. One such embodiment still providesfor varying the distance from the LED array(s) and the axis of rotationof the drum to accommodate different drums or sleeves of differentdiameters.

FIG. 4 shows a problem that can occur with arc lamps without reflectorgeometries that avoid the relatively high brightness of such sources.Such arc lamps, without complex reflector structures, may cause small,steep support shoulders of the screen dots as shown in FIG. 4. Thesesupport shoulders give relatively little support during printing, andmay cause the screen dot to bend under pressure as might occur duringprinting.

Complex reflector geometries are usually added to arc lamps to lower thebrightness and produce more divergence and diffusion in the beam. Suchlower brightness and high divergence and diffusion create broadershoulders in the cured polymer, as shown for a one halftone dot in FIG.5.

FIG. 6 shows how using a plurality of LEDs or LED arrays 105 can helpproduce a widely divergent (diffuse) beam. Each of the LED arrays 105 isplaced to provide radiation at a slightly different angle. A relativelylarge number of such LED arrays is used in one embodiment, so that theLEDs can be aimed differently to produce a relatively divergent set ofbeams, resulting in broad shoulders. This is illustrated in FIG. 6 whichshows five arrays 105 producing in combination a divergent set of beams,resulting, in this illustration, in a cured halftone dot that hasrelatively broad shoulders, compared, e.g., to the halftone dot shown inFIG. 4.

FIG. 7A shows a perspective view and FIG. 7B shows an end view of a partof a ring structure on which the LED arrays 105 are mounted. The ringsstructure is made up of a plurality of segments, onto which are mountedthe LED arrays 105. The segments are each tilted at a different anglerelative to the axis of rotation of the drum, so that beams at differentdirections are produced.

While the above describes using UV LED sources for curing of the platematerial from the top through the mask, it is also known thatback-exposure improves the quality of plates, e.g., flexographic plates.FIG. 8 shows in simplified form an apparatus usable to expose the backof such plates after imaging as part of the process of unloading a platefrom the drum imager. An array of UV LEDs 105, or an array of arrays ofUV LEDs' is placed along the width of an unloading area 803 onto which aplate is unloaded from an imaging drum 101 so that there is in-lineexposure during unloading. The unloading area 803 has a windowunderneath the plate when on the loading area that allows UV radiationfrom the bottom under the unloading area to irradiate the back of theplate after imaging, e.g., in the process of unloading. The energydensity is calculated so that the plate may be moved over the array of(arrays of) UV LEDs to sufficiently expose the back of the plate.

U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/916,738 filed May 8, 2007 toinventors Wolterink et. al, and titled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR LOADINGAND UNLOADING FLEXOGRAPHIC PLATES FOR COMPUTER-TO-PLATE IMAGINGINCLUDING SEPARATE LOADING AND UNLOADING AREAS described automaticinline exposure. The contents of such Patent Application No. 60/916,738are incorporated herein by reference. An implementation of the presentinvention can be added to any of the embodiments described in U.S.Patent Application No. 60/916,738, in the form of a set of arrays of UVLEDs for front exposure, back exposure, or both front and back exposure.How to so modify the description of any embodiment described in U.S.Patent Application No. 60/916,738 would be clear to one in the art fromthe description herein and in the cited Wolterlink et al. patentapplication.

FIG. 9 shows in simplified form another embodiment wherein the LEDarrays 105 operate at a variety of wavelengths in order to influence oneor more properties of the cured material. In the simplified drawing,three different UV LED wavelengths are used each to drive one or morearrays of LEDs, in this case, using three different power supplies. Byhaving each set of LEDs of a particular wavelength driven by its ownpower supply that is independently controlled, the wavelength mixture,e.g., the relative amount of each wavelength for the exposure can beprecisely controlled. By having individual control, not only theintensity, but the exposure time for each component wavelength can alsobe precisely controlled.

Yet another embodiment replaces common back exposure systems that useone or more arc lamps for UV exposure of a plate after imaging by anexposure system that uses a plurality of LEDs or arrays of LEDs for theUV exposure. In one embodiment, such an exposure unit exposes the areaof a whole plate. In another embodiment, the exposure unit exposes thewidth of a plate, and the plate travels relative to the source of UVradiation.

Many of the features described above are included in differentembodiments of the LED exposure system that replaces a conventional bankexposure unit. In one embodiment, the exposure unit includes heatsinkmaterial on which the LEDs are mounted. In one version, the LEDs areoriented in a plurality of directions to produce UV beams of widerdivergence, e.g., more disperse, so that the curing of the platematerial produces better edges. In one version, LEDs of severalwavelengths are used, each set of LEDs of different wavelengths drivenby its independently controllable power source, so that the radiationproduced can be tailored to be made up of different amounts of thewavelengths of the LEDs for spectral shaping.

Thus has been described use of UV LEDs or LED-arrays for curingphotopolymer plates during the imaging process. Thus also has beendescribed use of UV LEDs or LED-arrays for curing photopolymer platesafter the imaging process. This may offer several advantages over stateof the art arc lamps. One embodiment described includes LEDs arranged onthe inner side of a ring which surrounds the surface of a rotatable drumof a drum imaging device. A photopolymer plate may be placed on thesurface. The ring of LEDs travels in the axial during the laser imagingprocess to cure the imaged plate during the imaging process.

One feature compared to arc lamp curing is the relative absence of heatradiation, which otherwise may have negative impact on the curingprocess.

Another feature is that LEDs can be designed to only the wavelength (orwavelengths for a plurality of LEDs) needed for the curing process.Other wavelengths which reduce the quality of the cured plate are notpresent and so need not be filtered out.

Another feature is easy relative ease of adjustment of the curing lightdivergence by arranging the plurality of LEDs at various angles withrespect to the plate surface. A more divergent set of beams may producebetter curing than a less divergent set of beams.

General

By the terms “polymer plate” and “photopolymer plate” herein is meant aplate with any type of UV-curable material thereon. Today, suchmaterials are photopolymers. However, the term “photopolymer” is notmeant to be limiting to a polymer composition. The inventor anticipatesthat in the future, there may be new materials and compositions thatalso are curable y UV radiation of a desired wavelength, and theinvention is equally applicable to plates having such material thereon.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the followingdiscussions, it is appreciated that throughout the specificationdiscussions utilizing terms such as “processing,” “computing,”“calculating,” “determining” or the like, refer to the action and/orprocesses of a computer or computing system, or similar electroniccomputing device, that manipulate and/or transform data represented asphysical, such as electronic, quantities into other data similarlyrepresented as physical quantities.

In a similar manner, the term “processor” may refer to any device orportion of a device that processes electronic data, e.g., from registersand/or memory to transform that electronic data into other electronicdata that, e.g., may be stored in registers and/or memory. A “computer”or a “computing machine” or a “computing platform” may include one ormore processors.

Note that when a method is described that includes several elements,e.g., several steps, no ordering of such elements, e.g., steps isimplied, unless specifically stated.

Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “anembodiment” means that a particular feature, structure or characteristicdescribed in connection with the embodiment is included in at least oneembodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases“in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various places throughoutthis specification are not necessarily all referring to the sameembodiment, but may. Furthermore, the particular features, structures orcharacteristics may be combined in any suitable manner, as would beapparent to one of ordinary skill in the art from this disclosure, inone or more embodiments.

Similarly, it should be appreciated that in the above description ofexample embodiments of the invention, various features of the inventionare sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, ordescription thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure andaiding in the understanding of one or more of the various inventiveaspects. This method of disclosure, however, is not to be interpreted asreflecting an intention that the claimed invention requires morefeatures than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as thefollowing claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than allfeatures of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment. Thus, the claimsfollowing the DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS are hereby expresslyincorporated into this DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS, with eachclaim standing on its own as a separate embodiment of this invention.

Furthermore, while some embodiments described herein include some butnot other features included in other embodiments, combinations offeatures of different embodiments are meant to be within the scope ofthe invention, and form different embodiments, as would be understood bythose in the art. For example, in the following claims, any of theclaimed embodiments can be used in any combination.

In the description provided herein, numerous specific details are setforth. However, it is understood that embodiments of the invention maybe practiced without these specific details. In other instances,well-known methods, structures and techniques have not been shown indetail in order not to obscure an understanding of this description.

As used herein, unless otherwise specified the use of the ordinaladjectives “first”, “second”, “third”, etc., to describe a commonobject, merely indicate that different instances of like objects arebeing referred to, and are not intended to imply that the objects sodescribed must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, inranking, or in any other manner.

All publications, patents, and patent applications cited herein arehereby incorporated by reference.

Any discussion of prior art in this specification should in no way beconsidered an admission that such prior art is widely known, is publiclyknown, or forms part of the general knowledge in the field.

In the claims below and the description herein, any one of the termscomprising, comprised of or which comprises is an open term that meansincluding at least the elements/features that follow, but not excludingothers. Thus, the term comprising, when used in the claims, should notbe interpreted as being limitative to the means or elements or stepslisted thereafter. For example, the scope of the expression a devicecomprising A and B should not be limited to devices consisting only ofelements A and B. Any one of the terms including or which includes orthat includes as used herein is also an open term that also meansincluding at least the elements/features that follow the term, but notexcluding others. Thus, including is synonymous with and meanscomprising.

Similarly, it is to be noticed that the term coupled, when used in theclaims, should not be interpreted as being limitative to directconnections only. The terms “coupled” and “connected,” along with theirderivatives, may be used. It should be understood that these terms arenot intended as synonyms for each other. Thus, the scope of theexpression a device A coupled to a device B should not be limited todevices or systems wherein an output of device A is directly connectedto an input of device B. It means that there exists a path between anoutput of A and an input of B which may be a path including otherdevices or means. “Coupled” may mean that two or more elements areeither in direct physical or electrical contact, or that two or moreelements are not in direct contact with each other but yet stillco-operate or interact with each other.

Thus, while there has been described what are believed to be thepreferred embodiments of the invention, those skilled in the art willrecognize that other and further modifications may be made theretowithout departing from the spirit of the invention, and it is intendedto claim all such changes and modifications as fall within the scope ofthe invention. For example, any formulas given above are merelyrepresentative of procedures that may be used. Functionality may beadded or deleted from the block diagrams and operations may beinterchanged among functional blocks. Steps may be added or deleted tomethods described within the scope of the present invention.

I claim:
 1. An apparatus comprising: a rotatable imaging drum configuredto have a UV-curable printing plate placed thereon, the drum operativeto rotate during an imaging process, the plate having an ablatable layerthereon, the plate being a UV-curable flexographic plate, a UV-curableletterpress plate, or a UV-curable sleeve; a source of one or more laserbeams coupled to a source of image data and operable during the imagingprocess to image the UV-curable plate that has been placed on the drum,the imaging using the source of one or more laser beams causing ablatingof some of the ablatable layer according to imaging data to form animaged plate; an unloading area onto which the imaged plate is movableas part of an unloading process that unloads the imaged plate from thedrum; and a plurality of UV emitting LEDs configured to apply UVradiation to the back of the plate during or after the unloading of theimaged plate.
 2. An apparatus as recited in claim 1, further comprising:a control system configured to control: the imaging of the UV-curableprinting plate that is placed on the drum to form the imaged plate; theunloading of the imaged plate onto the unloading area after the imaging;and the applying of the UV radiation by the plurality of UV emittingLEDs, wherein the control system is operative to cause irradiation ofthe back of the imaged plate during or after the unloading process in anautomatic manner.
 3. An apparatus as recited in claim 2, furthercomprising a further plurality of UV emitting LEDs configured to applyUV radiation to the front of the plate.
 4. An apparatus as recited inclaim 3, wherein the control system is further operative to causeirradiation of the front of the imaged plate using the further pluralityof UV emitting LEDs during or after the unloading process in anautomatic manner, such that both the front and the back of the plate areirradiated after the imaging of the plate.
 5. An apparatus as recited inclaim 2, further comprising: a loading area separate from the unladingarea and configured to hold at least one plate that is to be loaded ontothe imaging drum, the holding of a to-be-loaded plate being at a loadingposition; wherein the apparatus is configured such that while one plateis positioned at the loading position on the loading area, another platecan be unloaded from the imager or be situated at the unloading area. 6.An apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the loading and unloadingareas are arranged in a manner that enables a first plate to be on theloading area while another plate is simultaneously at the unloadingarea.
 7. An apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the UV LEDs are ofa plurality of wavelengths supplied by respective controllable powersources and produce in combination UV having a spectral composition,wherein the spectral composition of the UV produced by the LEDs iscontrollable by controlling the respective power sources for the LEDs.8. An apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the UV radiation hasdivergence that is adjustable by tilting some of the LEDs differentlywith respect to each such that the beams from the LEDs towards thatimaged plate are in a plurality of directions.
 9. An apparatus asrecited in claim 8, wherein the LEDs are mounted on a plurality ofpanels, each panel having one or more LEDs, each panel tiltable so thatby tilting the panels at a plurality of angles, a range of UV beamdirections are obtained.
 10. An apparatus comprising: a rotatableimaging drum configured to have a UV-curable printing plate placedthereon, the drum operative to rotate during an imaging process, theplate having an ablatable layer thereon, the plate being a UV-curableflexographic plate, a UV-curable letterpress plate, or a UV-curablesleeve; a source of one or more laser beams coupled to a source of imagedata and operable to image a UV-curable plate that has an ablatablelayer thereon on the drum by ablating some of the ablatable layeraccording to imaging data to form an imaged plate; an unloading areaonto which a plate is movable when unloaded from the drum; and aplurality of UV emitting LEDs configured to apply UV radiation to theback of the UV-curable plate or to both the front and back of theUV-curable plate during or after the removing of the imaged plate. 11.An apparatus as recited in claim 10, wherein the UV LEDs are of aplurality of wavelengths supplied by respective controllable powersources and produce in combination UV having a spectral composition,wherein the spectral composition of the UV produced by the LEDs iscontrollable by controlling the respective power sources for the LEDs.